VIRGINIA TOBACCO SHEDS. 



409 



runs an elevated platform for placing the tobacco leaves in 

 bulk ; and, commencing at a safe distance from the trench, 

 up to the top of the building, reach beams stretching across 

 for the reception of the pine laths, from which are suspended 

 the tobacco plants. Many of the tobacco sheds a,t the South) 

 are built like those of New England, but many lag structures 

 are still to be seen and 

 many planters prefer them 

 to those made like other 

 frame buildings. The old 

 Yirginia planters of a 

 hundred years ago, built 

 rough log sheds for hous- 

 ing the plants, which 

 afforded little protection 

 from wind and rain, which, 

 in consequence, injured 



much of the tobacco hang- MODERN YIRGINIA SHED 



ing around the sides of 



the building. Tatham gives the following description of 

 the " Tobacco house and its variety " in his work on tobacco. 

 " The barn which is appropriated to the use of receiving 

 and curing this crop, is not, in the manner of other barns, 

 connected with the farm yard, so that the whole occupation 

 may be rendered snug and compact, and occasion little waste 

 of time by inconsiderate and useless locomotion ; but it is 

 constructed to suit the particular occasion in point of size, 

 and is generally erected in, or by the side of, each respective 

 piece of tobacco ground ; or sometimes in the woods, upon 

 some hill or particular site which may be convenient to more 

 than one field of tobacco. The sizes which are most generally 

 built where this kind of culture prevails, are what are called 

 forty-feet, and sixty^f eet tobacco houses ; that is, of these 

 lengths respectively, and of a proportionate width ; and the 

 plate of the wall, or part which supports the eaves of the 

 roof, is generally elevated from the groundsel about the 

 pitch of twelve feet. About twelve feet pitch is indeed a 

 good height for the larger crops ; because this will allow four 

 pitch each to three successive tiers of tobacco, besides those 

 which are hung in the roof ; and this distance admits a free 



